Friday, June 15, 2018

Want to feel more joy, peace,
and lightness in your being? Life experience and research shows when we replace
outmoded or ineffective behavior or attitudes with healthier ones, it raises
the frequency of our energy/vibration. I offer the ideas below to help you evaluate your personal habits, routines, and choices and take it from there.

Reduce pain or stress in mind, body, or spirit by implementing some of the self-development techniques below. Use others to enable you to train the power in your brain to think more clearly and focus on the positive. Use still others to encourage you to tap into limitless love, and work and play with greater enthusiasm.

Raise your vibration sky high by practicing the techniques suggested above. I guarantee they work to increase wellness and bring more zest into daily living.

Before you go, please comment below. I'd love to know how many of these life skills you use and which ones help you the most. Are there any you find challenging or need more help developing? Many of the posts I share on this blog feature self-care activities. Check them out.Feel free to re-share posts so others might benefit too, but don't forget to provide a link back to this post or to those you share. 💗

Friday, June 1, 2018

Don’t you just love the taste of avocados? This post provides serving
ideas including a recipe for guacamole, and tips to help you include more
avocados in your eating plan. This GREENSUPER FRUIT is loaded with health benefits and taste
appeal. Read on to learn more about this versatile green wonder food.

Guacamole toast sandwich with strawberries and sesame seeds

Avocados are sensually delicious, and are a powerful source of antioxidants and nutrients, including healthy unsaturated
fat.

Concerned about reducing inflammation? Avocados are an anti-inflammatory food that's easy to eat every day. It's simple to incorporate avocados into various dishes like sandwiches, salads, or to top tacos, burritos, chili, and any south of the border style food you enjoy.

Other Benefits

Include:

This green fruit is low in fructose and rich in healthy
monounsaturated fat and potassium.

Research suggests avocados benefit vascular function, heart health, and can possibly prevent cancer when combined with an active lifestyle and whole food plant based eating plan.

Avocados are a good source of lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants
that protect vision. The most concentrated amounts are in the darker green
flesh that's closest to the peel.

Avocados are versatile and in season in California and neighboring states during spring and summer, when we love to eat simple to prepare fun foods including salads.

Ripe avocados will yield
to gentle pressure, and should be eaten within a day or two. Unripe fruit can be stored for four to five days to ripen at room temperature.

To slow the ripening process and keep on hand longer, place a partly ripe avocado in the refrigerator. It will keep better this way.

Prep Tips: Make avocado prep simple. Sprinkle sliced avocado with a pinch of salt and pepper. Try out other seasonings like
paprika, cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and notice which ones you
prefer.

Another quick way to prep and season an avocado is to cut it into
chunks. Then, drizzle on a little bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pepper and
salt.

Now on to the Recipes:

Nancy Andres' Quick and Spicy Guacamole

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 medium size ripe tomatoes

Juice from 2 freshly squeezed limes or lemons

1 small yellow onion diced

2 medium size ripe avocados

1 small jalapeno pepper

Freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of salt

Optional Ingredients: cilantro, chili pepper flakes, and salsa

What to do:

1. Wash tomatoes and dice. Peel onion and dice as well. Place both in the serving bowl you intend to use.

2. Wear gloves to cut open a jalapeno pepper. Rinse the pepper, remove and discard
seeds, then finely chop.

3. Add half a jalapeno to mixture and proceed to the other steps.

4. Cut avocados in half and remove seeds. Score the inside of each avocado
with a blunt knife and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Put in a mixing bowl.

5. Use a fork to roughly mash the avocados. I like mine chunky, so I leave some larger pieces. Mash to the consistency you like best. 6. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, lime or lemon
juice, and add any or all of the optional ingredients you like. Cilantro is strong tasting and I prefer to use it only for the garnish. Many like it. Take what you like and leave the rest.

Note: Taste
the guacamole. If you like more heat, add the other half of the jalapeno pepper
and combine. Better to go slowly with this as once it’s too spicy it’s hard to
eat.

7. Place all ingredients into the serving bowl and mix well. Serve immediately along with corn chips as a snack or with your
favorite south of the border main course food.

If you're making it early, refrigerate until serving time. Best way to store is to cover it tightly (air tight container) and not to keep it for more than a day or
two before serving.

Note: Guacamole that’s exposed to the air and not
eaten right away, will turn gray-brown from oxidation. To reduce this effect,
sprinkle the top with a teaspoon of lemon or lime juice. Cover guacamole tightly
before refrigerating.

Note:
Chilling tomatoes hurts their flavor. I recommend you chop and add tomato for
the guacamole right before serving.

Picture and Recipe Source: J Algazi

Did you learn something new about avocados from my post? Do you eat avocado often or not so much? Is that going to change?Please take a few moments to comment. Share the love and spread the word about this delicious GREEN wonder food. When you do, provide a link back to this post.